The Genderbending of Haruhi Suzumiya
The Genderbending of Haruhi Suzumiya is a 3-D web series on That Guy With The Glasses. It is the first 3-D web series. The series is a gender-flipped remake of the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise, with Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Kay Panabaker, Anna Popplewell, Hoshi Ishida, Sara Wakatsuki, and Chisaki Hama portraying gender-flipped versions of their respective characters. The series is a co-production of Channel Awesome, Disney ABC Domestic Television, Cinergi Pictures, and SOS Productions. Cast Various ScrewAttack and That Guy With The Glasses personalities, including Doug Walker, Lindsay Ellis, Lewis Lovhaug, Benjamin Daniel, Kaylyn Dicksion, Rob Walker, and even James Rolfe, appear throughout the series as various characters. For example, Rob Walker plays Mrs. Okabe and the landlady at Ryou Asakura's apartment, and Ellis and Rolfe appear as WcDonald's employees. Rolfe says he plays the employee that tells Haruki her party's food is ready. Seasons The Melancholy of Haruki Suzumiya (Season 1) The first season of the web series, with seven episodes, each one based on a corresponding chapter in the original light novel. This, Disappearence, and Surprise are the only seasons to feature Sara Wakatsuki as Ryou Asakura, although Asakura is always featured in the closing shot of the closing credits for each season regardless of whether or not he appears in that season. The first episode premiered on thatguywiththeglasses.com on October 3, 2009. Chuck E. Cheese's brawl During a dinner that Emma, Rupert, Kay, Anna, and Hoshi attended at Chuck E. Cheese's during production, an assailant approached Emma and stabbed her. Rupert then shouted, "HOW DARE YOU ATTACK OUR LEADER!", punched the assailant, and kicked his knife out of his hand (but not before Kay, who had decided to join in after seeing Emma get knifed, got knifed herself) before himself getting punched. A rib was broken as a result, and Rupert was thrown toward Hoshi, whose rib was broken on impact. A few more of Rupert's bones were broken as a direct result of the same throw. Security guards were called in to quell the resulting riot, which resulted in further injury to Rupert and Kay, both of whom fought the assailant and his men bravely. When a policeman came in and shouted, "You're all under arrest!" everyone gasped, leading the policeman to reiterate, "Not you lot. Only the guys who started this whole mess." Rupert recounted the whole thing, and the assailant was promptly taken in along with several of his goons. Thankfully, none of the injuries were serious enough to merit hospital stays for anyone (though a minor rioter did get hospitalized after being stabbed repeatedly by one of the goons). Miraculously, Anna alone managed to survive the riot unscathed despite her character's constant abuse at the hands of Emma's character. Afterwards, Rupert revealed that one of the assailants tried to rape him: "After punching me around a few times, the little prick pinned me to the ground. He unzipped his zipper and was in the process of pulling down my panties. And I would've Dropped A Bridget On Him then and there if the police hadn't come in. I sure did pick a bad time to deal with a wanted rapist." The riot was caught on camera and is expected to be included as a special feature on the DVD and BluRay under the name "CEC Riot! Defend the SOS Brigade!" The Sigh of Haruki Suzumiya The second season of the web series, with five episodes, each one based on a corresponding chapter in the original light novel. This season features the series debut of Chisaki Hama as Tsuruya-san, who had previously appeared in the closing shot of the closing credits for Melancholy. The first episode premiered on thatguywiththeglasses.com on April 3, 2010. The Boredom of Haruki Suzumiya The third season of the web series, with five episodes. The first three episodes are based on the entirety of the first three stories in the original light novel, whereas the other two encompass the story "Remote Island Syndrome". The first episode premiered on thatguywiththeglasses.com on October 2, 2010. The Disappearance of Haruki Suzumiya The fourth season of the web series. It's the first season to feature Sara Wakatsuki as Ryou Asakura since episode 5 of Melancholy. The first episode premiered on thatguywiththeglasses.com on April 2, 2011. The Rampage of Haruki Suzumiya The upcoming fifth season of the web series. Anniversary Specials Seitenkan 1st Anniversary Special: Someday in the Rain (2010) Based on the original anime episode written by Nagaru Tanigawa, the plot follows Haruki and Kyonko as they retrieve a free heater from the electronics store that sponsored "The Adventures of Mitsuuru Asahina Episode 00" and is on tap to sponsor its sequel. Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Kay Panabaker, Anna Popplewell, and Hoshi Ishida reprise their roles. Seitenkan 2nd Anniversary Special: Haruki Meets Haruhi (2011) Based on an original story by Emma Watson, the plot centers around the Seitenkan group as they meet their "original" counterparts, who happen to be from another universe. The two groups hang out together while finding a way to restore the "original" counterparts to their universe. Plot At SOS Brigade headquarters, Mallory the Geico Gecko (voice of Jake Wood) is discussing car insurance with the SOS Brigade. Haruki (Emma Watson) decides to launch a project called "What If We Were the Opposite Gender" and assigns her lackeys to write a paper on it. That night, Kyonko (Rupert Grint) has a weird dream where she encounters her male self, Kyon (Lewis Lovhaug). Waking up the next morning, she discovers Kyon in the hallway of her house and is about to freak out. She asks if his appearance is Haruki's doing, but Kyon asserts that Haruhi (Lindsay Ellis) might be the cause. At SOS Brigade headquarters, Kyonko and Kyon encounter the rest of the SOS Brigade, including Haruki, with their "original" counterparts. Haruki's counterpart is named Haruhi, Yuuki's (Kay Panabaker) is named Yuki (Kaylyn Dicksion), Mitsuuru's (Anna Popplewell) is named Mikuru (Bonnie Wright), and Itsuko's (Hoshi Ishida) is named Itsuki (James Rolfe). Haruki decides to make the most of the appearance of their opposite gender counterparts (he's greatly offended by Haruhi's notion that her SOS Brigade is the original version). Haruki, Kyonko, and Yuki decide to go to the arcade, Yuuki, Mikuru, and Haruhi go to the music clubroom, Itsuko and Itsuki go to the Organization's headquarters, and Kyon and Mitsuuru decide to hang out at the local park, where a film festival is taking place. It's at this point where two scenes are interweaved together: Haruki and Kyonko playing Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova and dancing to "Honey Punch", and Yuuki giving Mikuru ballet lessons as Haruhi is playing the tune on the piano. The next day, the entire group goes to the local anime convention to meet Doug Walker. Mitsuuru (who is cosplaying as Sailor Moon) gets him to do the "Bat Credit Card" routine... only to meet up with an angry Nostalgia Critic (Walker) yet again when Walker accidentally says "Bat Credit Card". The Critic has to be restrained by Haruhi, Haruki, Kyon, and Kyonko... and then the Doug theme plays. Breaking free, the Critic rushes over to the nearby panel, where Douchey McNitpick (Walker) confronts him and the group ("HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!"). Haruki goes into a duel against Douchey and wins, leading the Critic to shove a grenade up Douchey's ass. After that, Haruki asks, "Do you have to be so extreme?" Throughout the convention, the group also meets up with Linkara (Lovhaug), Benzaie (Benjamin Daniel), The Spoony One (Noah Antwiler), the Nostalgia Chick (Ellis), MarzGurl (Dicksion), and even the Angry Video Game Nerd (Rolfe), who asks the Critic to yell his name for old time's sake ("NNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRD!"). Outside, they meet up with a trio of Bums: Chester A. (Walker), Lester B. (Lovhaug), and Spencer D. (Antwiler). Haruki flips a five-yen coin into the bucket of one of the Bums and instructs the others to do the same. Then they meet up with Ask That Guy (Walker), who claims to be all-knowing. When Haruki asks about GEICO car insurance, Ask That Guy rambles on about how he could sell car insurance if he was green with a British accent. A puzzled Haruki says, "British? I thought you were Australian!" Mallory reappears and says, "Funny you should ask, 'cause actually, I'm from..." During a baseball game, Haruhi receives a flashback to her first baseball game, which ended up causing her eccentric personality to emerge. Kyon and Haruhi have a discussion about those memories and decides that they must get back to their own universe, along with Yuki, Mikuru, and Itsuki. Haruhi reluctantly agrees and asks Haruki if he knows anyone who can bring her group back to their own universe. Haruki tells her to enjoy the rest of the game first. Following the game, an investigation reveals that Kyon might be a slider, but he doesn't know how he and his friends wound up in the same universe as their gender-flipped counterparts. Yuki puts her hand on Kyon's forehead, and Kyon finally remembers the circumstances that brought his group here. Haruhi decides to have some more fun with her club's counterparts, who see the opportunity as a way to get to know each other so Haruki's SOS Brigade could effectively write their paper. Cast *Emma Watson as Haruki Suzumiya *Lindsay Ellis as Haruhi Suzumiya; Nostalgia Chick *Rupert Grint as Kyonko *Lewis Lovhaug as Kyon; Linkara; Lester B. Bum *Kay Panabaker as Yuuki Nagato *Kaylyn Dicksion as Yuki Nagato; MarzGurl *Anna Popplewell as Mitsuuru Asahina *Bonnie Wright as Mikuru Asahina *Hoshi Ishida as Itsuko Koizumi *James Rolfe as Itsuki Koizumi; Angry Video Game Nerd *Jake Wood as Mallory the Geico Gecko *Doug Walker as Himself; The Nostalgia Critic; Ask That Guy; Chester A. Bum; Douchey McNitpick *Benjamin Daniel as Benzaie *Noah Antwiler as The Spoony One; Spencer D. Bum Seitenkan 3rd Anniversary: The SOS Brigade's Very Own Fuku Fic (2012) Based on an original story by Emma Watson, the plot centers around the Seitenkan group as they work on a 3D movie version of a fuku fic Haruki had written after being inspired by an Internet lurking in which he discovered several fuku fics lying around. Plot Haruki relays the news about his newest planned movie project, which is based on a fuku fic he had written. When he catches Mitsuuru playing video games on a Nintendo 3DS, Mitsuuru explains that he had ordered a custom-made version which could not only take 3D pictures but also capture 3D video. Inspired, Haruki decides to make the newest project 3D. The next day, after school, Haruki announces the conception of the 3D student film "Sailor Kyonko", inspired by fuku fics he had found on the Internet. He defines a fuku fic as one where a bunch of girls run around dressed as Sailor Moon and her allies. Those interested in participating sign the sheet as they walk across the auditorium. Afterward, the participants report to the Literature Clubroom, where Haruki gives each their roles. Kyonko asks why she got the lead all of a sudden, and Haruki explains that it's time she got the spotlight for once, after her good job on all the student films the SOS Brigade had done so far. Following a week of preparations (including ballet training from Yuuki and Le Parkour lessons from Haruki) and rehearsals, the first day of the shoot begins. Kyonko is guided along by Mitsuuru, who has experience from two previous SOS Brigade student films, and the club manages to complete the first day of shooting without a hitch. After a while, the SOS Brigade notices some things becoming exactly like the movie. Kyonko decides to pull the same tactic she pulled to return the universe to normal after the same thing had happened during an earlier student film shoot. She once again gets Haruki to add a disclaimer that the film is a work of fiction, thus returning things to normal. Halloween special (2010) A Halloween special was videotaped throughout the month of October and posted on October 31. The special begins with the SOS Brigade talking about their costumes one at a time before proceeding to go trick-or-treating in the Channel Awesome community, stopping at the houses of several contributors. Costumes *Emma Watson as Haruki Suzumiya - The Man With No Name **Cowboy hat, white Western-style shirt, blue jeans, brown boots, and olive green poncho *Rupert Grint as Kyonko - A fairy **Gold dress with short mildly-puffed sleeves, six-leaf skirt, and attached translucent wings, gold leotard (to avert possible panty shots), flesh-colored tights, and red Mary Janes *Kay Panabaker as Yuuki Nagato - Tron **Black jumpsuit with blue glow-in-the-dark lining and black helmet with blue glow-in-the-dark lining *Anna Popplewell as Mitsuuru Asahina - Hayate Ayasaki **White shirt, black jacket, and black dress pants *Hoshi Ishida as Itsuko Koizumi - Fujiko Mine **Magenta dress and high heels Trivia *Emma Watson was so impressed with the ballet improvised by Kay Panabaker and Sara Wakatsuki during their fight scene in episode 5 of Melancholy that she wrote further ballet sequences for Kay in later seasons. Rupert Grint did his best to keep away from the dancing, even when he didn't expect it, yet Kay dragged him into her ballet routines several times. Examples: **When Sara as Ryou swung her katana at Kay (Yuuki) and Rupert (Kyonko), Kay lifted him up in an enlevement to dodge the katana swing. **During the shoot for the first fight between Anna Popplewell (Mitsuuru) and Kay, right when Anna yelled "Mi... Mi... MITSUURU BEAM!", Kay grabbed Rupert with one arm and threw him into the air. When he fell, he was caught by Kay, with one foot in the air and his other foot with his toes on the pavement. **In one scene in the alternate reality season Disappearance, Yuuki demonstrates his ballet skills to Kyonko, culminating in Yuuki twirling Kyonko "like a top". *A book detailing the cast's experiences is in progress, with the tentative title of "Our Seitenkan Journal". *A soundtrack is due out in 2012 and will cover the first six seasons. *Emma Watson relied on timing when inserting heavy-impact swear words into the script for each episode. *Shot in SlayerVision 3D.